


1976: To Protect Home

by Wolfepup



Series: Zouxie Week 2020 [3]
Category: Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Native American/First Nations History, Zouxie Week 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:42:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27395914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolfepup/pseuds/Wolfepup
Summary: The land was young, but it had known the touch of magic for eons. Secrets are told during a Storm, connections found, and proof of a pact forged that saved countless magical lives.
Relationships: Archie (Tales of Arcadia)/Original Character(s), Hisirdoux "Douxie" Casperan/Zoe
Series: Zouxie Week 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1994794
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	1976: To Protect Home

**Author's Note:**

> Zouxie Week November Third, the 70's

From Wikipedia: “To preserve some of Washington's primeval forest lands, in 1938 President [Franklin D. Roosevelt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt) designated 898,000 acres (363,000 ha) as Olympic National Park. Two years later, President Roosevelt added 300 square miles (780 km2) to the park. President [Harry S. Truman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Truman) added 75 miles (121 km) of coastal wilderness to the Park in 1953, including the Kalaloch area. In 1976 the Olympic National Park was designated as an [International Biosphere Reserve](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Biosphere_Reserve). The National Park Service purchased the Becker property in 1978 and renamed it Kalaloch Lodge. Olympic National Park was designated in 1981 as a [World Heritage Site](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Heritage_Site). In 1988, Congress approved the designation of 95 percent of the park as the [Olympic Wilderness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Wilderness).”

The book was thin, the pictures inside black and white, the cover an artificial sepia. Zoe didn’t care. In all of her wanderings, this was a new place, and when she saw the book about Kalaloch’s history, she scooped it up. This was an old land, older than the far northern realms in Europe she had called home so many centuries ago, far older than even fabled Camelot. And steeped in a magic that was so close to the land and its life, that it could never be separated.

She felt it in her bones, the soft hum of the restless Earth. The deep, bass rumble that she never heard in Europe. While the magic was old—the land was young and vibrant.

Douxie stretched out on the RV’s small couch, leaning against a cabinet, his legs over hers. He had been reading a different book, some kind of light fantasy escapism about telepathic horses, but he was now dozing, his head leaning in the corner. Archie was curled up on his lap, tail flicking in his sleep. Foam sat on the floor, pawing through her own book, occasionally swatting at Archie’s tail when it got in her face.

The RV rocked slightly as the wind howled. After the sun had set, the storm had come ashore with a vengeance. Rain pelted the roof. The RV’s magical batteries kept the lights on, the propane heater kept them comfortably warm. Foam looked at Zoe’s book, eyes squinting a bit. “Hmm, I thought they stopped selling that.”

“Why?” Zoe put the book down in her lap, tucking a thin blanket around Douxie’s and her legs.

Foam stood, her chest reached the bottom of the couch. In her bobcat form, she was a large as Archie in his dragon form. She poked at the book with a paw, a single claw extended. “The modern details are correct, but it glosses over the _real_ reason.” She sat down, looking to the side.

“As you know, like most all magical creatures, Dragons are functionally immortal.” Zoe nodded. “But we are far from the first shapeshifters; we had to learn it from someone.”

The wind howled, and Douxie shifted in his sleep.

“The Native Stories are not mine to tell, but I can tell you what I was told by my parents and their parents before them.”

“My Great Grandparents flew in on the winds. They were small, young Dragons, trying to find a new life, new territory. They came here, to this wild place, and were entranced by it. This land had never seen a dragon, but it knew fire, and water, and wind, and earth. It called to them.”

Douxie cracked open one eye, lifting his head from the wall.

“They dug their cave near here, and raised my mother in peace. She fell in love with a man named Orca. He learned how to shift his shape from listening to the Ocean and the People. He passed this knowledge to her, and they swam with the Salmon People, flew with Gull and Eagle, and helped BlueJay play many pranks.”

“Orca was not who he seemed to be, but mother loved him all the same,” Foam looked out the window, the world dark and obscured by the pounding rain, “My father was a Storm Dragon from China. He ran here in shame, he had been accused of stealing a Treasure Dragon’s Pearl, but he was innocent. He was also young, and had no one to speak for him.”

Archie had raised his head by this point, ears cocked towards Foam and her story. “He came here and hid among the People, and was living as a Man when he met my mother. A storm had flung her from the sky, and she lay wounded on the beach. Orca found her and nursed her back to health. First she fell in love with him as a Man, and then as a Dragon. Soon, they dug their own cave, and my brother and I came into the world. My brother took the name Adalfarus and flew back to Europe, to teach shapeshifting to other Dragons, for we Dragons are few, and we cannot hide as easily as a wizard can.”

“Adalfarus?!” Archie was wide awake. “I knew him! He taught my father how to shapeshift! He would let me chase his tail tips when I was but a whelp! _He_ is your brother?”

“My twin,” she shrugged one shoulder. “I stayed here while my family flew across the world. Sometimes I would visit other places, but I always returned here. I saw Man come and go, People flourish and die from pestilence. But they persisted. And the magic of this land never faded.” She stood and stretched, “Tomorrow, when the storm passes, I would like to show you may lair.”

Archie stammered, “Y-you’re lair? You mean…your _home_?”

“Serious, huh, Arch?” Douxie ruffled the fur on Archie’s head. The dragon flattened it down with a huff.

“Not my original home; this is a restless land and I lost that cave many centuries ago. But my current home, yes.” She mussed his fur again with a swipe of her tongue. Archie stuttered, Zoe swore he was blushing if he wasn’t covered in fur.

Douxie laughed, “We would be honored, my lady. Right, Archie?”

Archie scowled at Douxie. He turned to Foam and bowed as much as was able to, still laying on Douxie’s lap. “I would be honored, as well.” Zoe covered her smile with a hand; Archie was giving Douxie epic side eye.

**

Douxie stood at the RV door, hair mussed up, dressed in a loose teeshirt and oversized sweats. The cold, damp air chilled his toes.

“Good morning,” the park ranger was professional and friendly, but not overly chipper. He held a clipboard in one hand, his truck was parked at the end of their site, engine idling. “Everything ok after that storm last night?”

Douxie nodded, hiding a yawn behind one arm.

The ranger marked something on his board. “Sorry to wake you up then, mind if I inspect your site?”

“Not at all.”

“Let me know if you have any issues,” he waved and stepped back. “Enjoy your stay.”

“We are, good day,” Douxie shut the door.

“Who was that?” Zoe shuffled into the kitchen, placing a kettle on the propane stove.

“Park Ranger. Wanted to make sure we were still in Washington and not OZ.”

“Oh good, I hear it is a horrid place.” Foam’s nose poked out of her pile of blankets. She was not about to go home in the storm, not when she had a perfectly serviceable RV. Douxie and Zoe had transformed the dinette into a bed for her. One of Archie’s feet stuck out from under the blanket. He either preferred sleeping with his new ladyfriend, or he was getting tired of Zoe’s arm flopping onto him. Perhaps both. Douxie looked at Zoe, who stared at the pot, waiting for the water to heat up. Definitely both.

She had not slept well during the storm. She had only fallen asleep when she could no longer hold her eyes open, and with Douxie’s arms tight around her. And, as a consequence, he had not slept well either. Good thing the only item they had planned today was a visit to Foam’s lair, and from the sounds of things, it was not far.

Douxie reached over and softly gripped Archie’s foot. With a muffled grunt, the foot disappeared under the blankets. “C’mon, Archie. I need to make the bed into a table.”

The lump of blankets grumbled.

Foam smiled a toothy grin, and crawled under the covers. The blankets moved around quite a bit, and Archie shot out with a surprised yelp. “YEAHH! COLD!”

Foam sauntered out, and groomed one ear. “My father was a Storm Dragon, be happy it was not lightening!”

Archie shivered from where he cowered behind Zoe’s legs. She looked down at him bleary-eyed, before reaching up to take a few mugs from the cupboard. “Was that ice?” his voice was soft.

Foam nodded, and hopped onto the couch across from the dinette. She watched as Douxie’s magic lit up and the table formed out of the bed. The blankets where likewise magically folded and placed on the main bed. “And my your eternally warm toes, you breathe fire?”

Archie puffed out his chest. “You assume correctly, madam.”

Douxie smiled at their antics, and pulled a few cans and spoons out of various storage areas, piling them on the dinette table before flopping down. Zoe placed the mugs in front of him. Instant coffee with tons of creamer for herself, tea for Archie and Douxie.

Douxie looked from the fourth cup to Foam, “uhmm…”

“Tea, please, whatever he,” tilt of the head, “is having. You can learn a lot about a person by their tea.”

“True that, fine lady,” Douxie raised his cup to her.

“You,” Archie hopped up next to Douxie, “Are not helping.”

**

Douxie scrambled over the driftwood in the small canyon below the lodge. The storm had tossed more massive trees ashore; he had not seen trees this massive in hundreds of years. He placed on hand on an eroded rootball. It was twice as tall as he was, and incomplete from its downriver and ocean journey. Foam hopped up next to him. “It never ceases to amaze me how a land so young can be so old.” She looked up at him. She had taken the form of a large Himalayan Cat, all floof and pale fur with soft grey markings on her face, ears, paws, and the World’s Longest Floofiest Tail. She had on a pink harness, almost invisible under all of the fur, as a nod to the human’s desire to protect these sacred lands.

Archie sat on Zoe’s shoulders, his blue lead tucked into her pocket. Zoe took the easier route, walking between the driftwood instead of over it. They scrambled up the canyon, the walls growing closer, the driftwood rarer, and the vegetation denser. Foam slinked behind a bush with a million little thorns. Douxie and Zoe cursed at the thorns; they dare not curse the bush itself. Magic permeated this place.

“About time you two got here,” Archie had hopped down from Zoe’s shoulder and was waiting for them inside. The bush had concealed a cave, and from the looks of the wall, one that was not going to be around for too much longer.

The cave was mostly empty, lit softly by white crystals glowing in the walls. There was a pile of rugs, blankets, and sleeping bags at one end. A large chest sat proudly against the back wall. Douxie could feel the enchantments; the walls felt stronger here, the air dryer.

Foam looked around. “It is not much. There are not many caves in these mountains, and this dirt,” she waved at the walls with her paw. The walls were layers and layers of hard-packed mud and rocks, “Used to be in a glacier not that long ago, geologically speaking. Horrible cave stuff.” Above the chest was a framed document of some kind.

Douxie leaned towards it. “What is this?”

“My greatest accomplishment.” She shifted into her larger bobcat form, sitting proudly. “And the one time I influenced politics.”

It was a framed document designating the Olympic National Forest and Coast as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1976. The frame was well worn, glowing with preservation enchantments.

“This means a lot to you, doesn’t it?” Douxie stood, one hand on his hip.

Foam nodded. “This protected not just my home,” she motioned to the cave around her,” but the home of so many more. There are trolls here, and sasquatch, and other shapeshifters.” Archie sat next to her, close enough for their hips to touch. She looked over to him, “I had to work to make sure it was permanently protected.”

“I have been on the run for so long, no where felt like home until Arcadia. I would do anything to protect that place now.”

Zoe walked next to Douxie, reading the document. He laced his fingers with hers. “It is nice to have a place to call home, isn’t it?”

She smiled, and leaned on his shoulder. “It is.”

**Author's Note:**

> Posting a bit late, but meh. I'd rather have fun and post late than not at all. It was a challenge to fulfill the "70's" theme for today and to keep with my "week at the ocean" self-challenge--until I read up on Kalaloch's history. Quite a bit of legal stuff went down in the mid to late 70's there, and using a resident OC, the always fun to write for Foam, I was able to work that in hopefully not too awkwardly.


End file.
